Russia's Putin says YUKOS owners ordered murders

MOSCOW Dec 3 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday lashed out at former bosses of the giant YUKOS oil company -- including jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- accusing them of ordering the murders of opponents.

Speaking to Russians in a televised phone-in, Putin said the oil company's former security chief -- who has been convicted of carrying out murders -- was acting on the orders of YUKOS shareholders, of which Khodorkovsky was the biggest.

The battle with Khodorkovsky and the carve-up of the YUKOS empire -- once Russia's biggest oil producer -- dominated Putin's presidency.

Khodorkovsky, who was sentenced in 2005 to eight years imprisonment in a remote Siberian jail for fraud and tax evasion, is on trial for new charges of money laundering and embezzlement that could keep him in jail for another 22 years.

He denies any guilt and says he was jailed so that corrupt officials could carve up his business empire. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Michael Stott) ((guy.faulconbridge@reuters.com, +7 495 775 12 42))